Professor Richard Susskind

Professor Richard Susskind is an author, speaker and independent adviser to international law firms, in-house counsel, and national governments. His main area of expertise is the future of legal service, with particular reference to the impact of technology. He has written numerous books, including three best-sellers - The Future of Law (Oxford, 1996), Transforming the Law (Oxford, 2000), and, most recently, The End of Lawyers? (Oxford 2008). He has also written over 100 columns as a columnist for The Times. Richard lectures internationally and has been invited to speak in over 40 countries.

Professor Susskind has advised many of the world’s leading law firms. He also advises General Counsel of multi-national businesses and has undertaken several research projects relating to the future of in-house legal departments. Since 1998, Richard has been IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He is Visiting Professor in Internet Studies at the Oxford Internet Institute in the University of Oxford and Honorary Professor and Emeritus Law Professor at Gresham College in London. He holds a doctorate in law and computers from Balliol College, Oxford, and was awarded an OBE in the Millennium New Year's Honours List for services to IT in the Law and to the Administration of Justice.

J. L. Novak

J.L. Novak is General Counsel of AOL Paid Services, a part of AOL Inc. As the chair of his legal department's technology committee, he has managed a series of cost management initiatives that have helped reduce AOL’s outside counsel spend by more than half.  Prior to joining AOL in 2003, he was a partner at McGuireWoods LLP and a law clerk to the Honorable Charles R. Richey, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia.

D. Mark Poag

D. Mark Poag, Datacert's Senior Vice President & General Counsel, joined the company in 2001 following its acquisition of DigiContract, which he co-founded in 1999 and at which he served as president and CEO. Prior to joining DigiContract, Poag practiced corporate law at Bracewell & Patterson, LLP. Poag now leverages his legal and business expertise to provide Datacert strategic guidance about the legal technology industry.

James J. Bender

James (Jim) Bender was named senior vice president and general counsel for Williams in December 2002. Bender's responsibilities include managing the Williams legal department and providing advice and counsel to the company and its board of directors regarding governance matters and litigation as well as proposed transactions and financings. He is also the company’s chief compliance officer and has responsibility for overseeing the government affairs department, the corporate environmental, health and safety group and corporate security.

Before joining Williams, Bender served as in-house counsel for NRG Energy and was senior vice president and general counsel of NRG from 1997 to 2002. He also served as in-house counsel for AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) and Pfizer and was an associate in the Denver and London offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Immediately after law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Donald D. Alsop in the federal district court in St. Paul, MN. 

Richard Baer

Richard Baer serves as General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Qwest Communications. In this role, Rich oversees law, risk management and compliance efforts, public policy, government relations, human resources, labor relations, corporate communications and corporate social responsibility. Under Mr. Baer’s leadership, the Qwest Law Department was named one of the ten most innovative law departments of 2010 for its in-house ethics training program. He was appointed by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to serve as the co-chair of the Governor’s Information Technology transition team and as chairman of the Colorado Workforce Development Counsel.

Howard J. C. Nicols

Howard Nicols is Squire, Sanders & Dempsey's Global Managing Partner and leads the firm’s 300-lawyer advocacypractice. He has extensive experience handling the economic issues involved in commercial litigation including transfer pricing, tax and royalty disputes, and the challenges involved in presenting complex valuation issues at trial. His litigation experience includes securities fraud and class action defense, as well as the defense and prosecution of claims in complex bankruptcy proceedings, where he served as lead counsel in the creditor committee and debtor investigations in the Enron Corporation and Baptist Foundation of Arizona bankruptcies. He has also conducted internal and external investigations on behalf of boards of directors and senior management.